50 dead, 400 hurt in Las Vegas concert attack

At least 50 people died and more than 400 more hurt when a 64-year-old gunman with an arsenal of at least 10 rifles fired on a Las Vegas country music festival on Sunday, raining down bullets from a 32nd-floor window for minutes before killing himself.

The death toll, which police emphasized was preliminary, would make the massacre the deadliest mass shooting in US history, eclipsing last year’s massacre of 49 people at an Orlando night club.

Some 22,000 people were in the crowd when a man police identified as Stephen Paddock opened fire, sparking a panic in which some people trampled on others, as law enforcement officers scrambled to locate the gunman.

Shocked concert goers, some with blood on their clothes, wandered the streets afterwards.

Police said they had no information about Paddock’s motive, and that he had no criminal record and was not believed to be connected to any militant group. Paddock killed himself before police entered the hotel room he was firing from, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters.

Lombardo said there were more than 10 rifles in the room where Paddock killed himself after checking into the hotel on Thursday. Paddock was not known to law enforcement, Lombardo said.

The dead included one off-duty police officer, Lombardo said. Two on-duty officers were injured, including one who was in stable condition after surgery and one who sustained minor injuries, Lombardo said. Police warned the death toll may rise.

Related

Oman Observer

To get free breaking news and updates from Oman Observer, WhatsApp your name and email to 96473232.
https://www.omanobserver.om/ is now on Telegram. Join our channel https://t.me/OmanObserverNews in your Telegram and stay updated